Cardiac Services Registries

All New Jersey cardiac surgery hospitals and those operating a cardiac catheterization laboratory are required to provide patient level data on their open heart, diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterization procedures.

Catheterization involves inserting a thin plastic tube (catheter) into an artery or vein in the arm or leg and advancing it into the chambers of the heart or into the coronary arteries. It can be either a diagnostic or a therapeutic, i.e. interventional, procedure.

A diagnostic procedure can measure blood pressure within the heart and how much oxygen is in the blood. It can also be used to get information about the pumping ability of the heart muscle. Catheters are also used to inject dye into the coronary arteries to measure blockages. This is called coronary angioplasty or coronary arteriography.

For therapeutic purposes, specifically, to open up a blocked coronary artery, catheters with a balloon on the tip are used in the procedure called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Generally a stent is then delivered through the catheter and placed in the coronary artery to keep it open.

Catherization is also performed on infants and children to examine or treat congenital heart defects.